Jeff Belanger on The World’s Most Haunted Places

Summary

Paranormal journalist Jeff Belanger joins Miguel Conner to discuss his book The World's Most Haunted Places, arguing that ghosts are less about the dead's unfinished business than our own. He frames hauntings as sermons from the past, pointing to sites like the Pennhurst State School, where real atrocities left echoes society needs to hear. Along the way he shares White House staff sightings of Abraham Lincoln and his own life-changing shadow encounter in the Paris catacombs.

Key takeaways

• 1Belanger grew up in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, next to Monroe, home of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose presentations inspired him at age 13
• 2He founded the ghost-story website Ghost Village in 1999 and later worked on the TV show Ghost Adventures
• 3Pennhurst State School near Philadelphia chained patients to beds and pulled teeth from biters; reporter Bill Baldini's exposé led to its closure and influenced federal disability law
• 4White House Chief Usher Gary Walters described reports of a British redcoat ghost with a torch near the North Portico, tied to the 1812 burning of the building
• 5White House chief operations foreman Tony Savoy claimed he saw Abraham Lincoln's ghost sitting outside the Lincoln Bedroom; Belanger also says he obtained a classified ghost reference through a FOIA request
• 6Belanger had a shadow-figure encounter in the Paris Catacombs in 2003, and he discusses Wales' Skirrid Inn, allegedly the site of 182 hangings

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

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Excerpt from Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio, Sep 23, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.